editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk. An award-winning science journalist with more than 25 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women's health issues and other science, medical, and health policy news. Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR's science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington. Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program inNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Rob SteinWed, 02 Aug 2017 19:41:36 +0000Rob Steinhttp://wfae.org
Rob SteinScientists have been tinkering with the DNA in humans and other living things for decades. But one thing has long been considered off-limits: modifying human DNA in any way that could be passed down for generations. Now, an international team of scientists reports they have, for the first time, figured out a way to successfully edit the DNA in human embryos — without introducing the harmful mutations that were a problem in previous attempts elsewhere. The work was published online Wednesday in the journal Nature. "It's a pretty exciting piece of science," says George Daley , dean of the Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research. "It's a technical tour de force. It's really remarkable." The research is ultimately aimed at helping families plagued by genetic diseases. The new experiment used a powerful new gene-editing technique to correct a genetic defect behind a heart disorder that can cause seemingly healthy young people to suddenly die from heart failure. TheScientists Precisely Edit DNA In Human Embryos To Fix A Disease Genehttp://wfae.org/post/scientists-precisely-edit-dna-human-embryos-fix-disease-gene
120688 as http://wfae.orgWed, 02 Aug 2017 17:22:00 +0000Scientists Precisely Edit DNA In Human Embryos To Fix A Disease GeneRob SteinSperm counts appear to be plummeting throughout the Western world, according to a large study of men around the world. An international team of scientists analyzed data from nearly 43,000 men in dozens of industrialized countries and found that sperm counts dropped by more than half over nearly four decades. "I think that we should take this very seriously," says Shanna Swan, a reproductive epidemiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She helped conduct the study published in the journal Human Reproduction Update . "I think it's a wake-up call," Swan says. Previous studies have suggested that sperm counts may be falling around the world. This study is the largest and most comprehensive to date. It was designed to resolve doubts about the earlier findings, Swan says. "I've always been very skeptical of previous reports that have suggested that sperm counts are declining," says Allan Pacey , a professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield in EnglandSperm Counts Plummet In Western Men, Study Findshttp://wfae.org/post/sperm-counts-plummet-western-men-study-finds
120497 as http://wfae.orgMon, 31 Jul 2017 09:43:00 +0000Sperm Counts Plummet In Western Men, Study FindsRob SteinA new kind of cancer treatment that uses genetically engineered cells from a patient's immune system to attack their cancer easily cleared a crucial hurdle Wednesday. A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee unanimously recommended that the agency approve this "living drug" approach for children and young adults who are fighting a common form of leukemia. The agency doesn't have to follow the committee's recommendation but usually does. The treatment takes cells from a patient's body, modifies the genes, and then reinfuses those modified cells back into the person who has cancer. If the agency approves, it would mark the first time the FDA has approved anything considered to be a "gene therapy product." The treatment is part of one of the most important developments in cancer research in decades — finding ways to harness the body's own immune system to fight cancer. And while it has generated much hope, there are some concerns about its safety over the long term — and its cost'Living Drug' That Fights Cancer By Harnessing Immune System Clears Key Hurdlehttp://wfae.org/post/living-drug-fights-cancer-harnessing-immune-system-clears-key-hurdle
119361 as http://wfae.orgWed, 12 Jul 2017 22:11:00 +0000'Living Drug' That Fights Cancer By Harnessing Immune System Clears Key HurdleRob SteinThe U.S. is in the midst of an opioid crisis. Millions of Americans are addicted to the powerful prescription painkillers, and tens of thousands are dying each year from overdoses. A new report out Thursday offers a bit of hope: Doctors are prescribing opioids less often, and the average dose they're giving patients has dropped, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the number of patients getting opioids is still too high, and doctors are giving their patients prescriptions that last longer, according to the report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . "The bottom line is that too many [people] are still getting too much for too long," says Anne Schuchat , the CDC's acting director. "And that is driving our problem with drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths in the country." "We're in the midst of the worst drug addiction epidemic in United States history, but we are still massively overprescribing," says Andrew Kolodny , an addictionOpioid Prescriptions Falling But Remain Too High, CDC Sayshttp://wfae.org/post/opioid-prescriptions-falling-remain-too-high-cdc-says
118998 as http://wfae.orgThu, 06 Jul 2017 17:16:00 +0000Opioid Prescriptions Falling But Remain Too High, CDC SaysRob SteinThe air Americans breathe has been getting cleaner for decades. But air pollution is still killing thousands in the U.S. every year, even at the levels allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency , according to a study out Wednesday. "We are now providing bullet-proof evidence that we are breathing harmful air," says Francesca Dominici , a professor of biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who led the study. "Our air is contaminated." Dominici and her colleagues set out to do the most comprehensive study to date assessing the toll that air pollution takes on American lives. The researchers used data from federal air monitoring stations as well as satellites to compile a detailed picture of air pollution down to individual zip codes. They then analyzed the impact of very low levels of air pollution on mortality, using data from 60 million Medicare patients from 2000 to 2012. About 12,000 lives could be saved each year, their analysis concludes, by cuttingU.S. Air Pollution Still Kills Thousands Every Year, Study Concludeshttp://wfae.org/post/us-air-pollution-still-kills-thousands-every-year-study-concludes
118527 as http://wfae.orgWed, 28 Jun 2017 21:31:00 +0000U.S. Air Pollution Still Kills Thousands Every Year, Study ConcludesRob SteinAdvances in technology have made it much easier, faster and less expensive to do whole genome sequencing — to spell out all three billion letters in a person's genetic code. Falling costs have given rise to speculation that it could soon become a routine part of medical care, perhaps as routine as checking your blood pressure. But will such tests, which can be done for as little as $1,000, prove useful, or needlessly scary? The first closely-controlled study aimed at answering that question suggests that doctors and their patients can handle the flood of information the tests would produce. The study was published Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine. "We can actually do genome sequencing in normal, healthy individuals without adverse consequences — and actually with identification of some important findings," says Teri Manolio , director of the division of genomic medicine at the National Human Genome Institute, which funded the study. Manolio wrote an editorial accompanying theRoutine DNA Sequencing May Be Helpful And Not As Scary As Fearedhttp://wfae.org/post/routine-dna-sequencing-may-be-helpful-and-not-scary-feared
118372 as http://wfae.orgMon, 26 Jun 2017 21:15:00 +0000Routine DNA Sequencing May Be Helpful And Not As Scary As FearedRob SteinThe use of electronic cigarettes by middle and high school students in the United States has dropped for the first time since the federal government started tracking the use of these products by young people. The number of teenagers using e-cigarettes fell from 3 million in 2015 to 2.2 million in 2016, according to a report published Thursday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . "It's actually quite remarkable from a public health standpoint," says Brian King, deputy director for research translation in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health, which produced the report. Before the drop, the CDC had documented an exponential increase in the use of e-cigarettes by young people between 2011 and 2015, King says. That prompted widespread alarm among public health authorities. The devices were first imported into the U.S. from China in 2006. E-cigarettes are devices that heat up a fluid containing nicotine to produce a vapor that users inhale; thusTeens' Use Of E-Cigarettes Drops For The First Time, CDC Sayshttp://wfae.org/post/teens-use-e-cigarettes-drops-first-time-cdc-says
117683 as http://wfae.orgThu, 15 Jun 2017 17:17:00 +0000Teens' Use Of E-Cigarettes Drops For The First Time, CDC SaysRob SteinThe Food and Drug Administration requested Thursday that the drugmaker Endo Pharmaceuticals stop selling Opana ER — its extended-release version of Opana. The FDA says the move marks the first time the agency has taken steps to remove an opioid from the market because of "public health consequences of abuse." An increasing number of people, the FDA says, are abusing the powerful prescription pills by crushing, dissolving and injecting them. The sharing of needles by these drug users has fueled an outbreak of associated infectious diseases — HIV, hepatitis C and another serious blood disorder. "We are facing an opioid epidemic — a public health crisis, and we must take all necessary steps to reduce the scope of opioid misuse and abuse," says Dr. Scott Gottlieb , the FDA's commissioner, in announcing the move. "We will continue to take regulatory steps when we see situations where an opioid product's risks outweigh its benefits, not only for its intended patient population but also inFDA Calls On Drugmaker To Pull A Powerful Opioid Off The Market http://wfae.org/post/fda-calls-drugmaker-pull-powerful-opioid-market
117287 as http://wfae.orgFri, 09 Jun 2017 00:56:00 +0000FDA Calls On Drugmaker To Pull A Powerful Opioid Off The Market Rob SteinProvocative new research suggests that fetuses have the ability to discern faces when they're still in the womb. A study involving 34-week-old fetuses found they were more likely to focus on a pattern of lights that resembled a human face than on the same lights configured to look nothing like a face. While the results need to be confirmed by follow-up experiments, some researchers who were not involved in the experiment say the findings are a significant advance in understanding early human sight development. "I think it's fantastic," says Scott Johnson , a developmental psychologist at UCLA who was not involved in the research. "It's really a breakthrough. Scientists have long known that fetuses respond to sounds, such as their mother's voice and music. But it's always been a mystery how much they could see. "Vision really was the last of the sensory systems for us to understand," says Vincent Reid , a professor of psychology at Lancaster University in Britain who led the newFetuses Respond To Face-Like Patterns, Study Suggestshttp://wfae.org/post/fetuses-respond-face-patterns-study-suggests
117265 as http://wfae.orgThu, 08 Jun 2017 18:37:00 +0000Fetuses Respond To Face-Like Patterns, Study SuggestsRob SteinScientists say they may have solved a big medical mystery: why mammograms don't save more lives. A study involving thousands of breast cancer cases, released Wednesday, concludes that a significant proportion of tumors detected through mammography are not small because they are found early. Instead, the tumors are small because they are biologically prone to slow growth. "For over 100 years, we've known that small breast cancers have a much better prognosis than large breast cancers," says Donald Lannin , a professor of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, who led the study. "We always assumed that it was because we were catching the small cancers early and then that's why the cure rate was much better." To test that assumption, Lannin and a colleague analyzed information about thousands of breast cancer cases collected between 2001 and 2013 by the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. They found that about 22 percent of tumors detected bySome Small Tumors In Breasts May Not Be So Bad After Allhttp://wfae.org/post/some-small-tumors-breasts-may-not-be-so-bad-after-all
117218 as http://wfae.orgWed, 07 Jun 2017 21:32:00 +0000Some Small Tumors In Breasts May Not Be So Bad After AllRob SteinNursing homes and hospitals need to do more to protect their patients from catching Legionnaires' disease from contaminated water systems in their buildings, federal health officials warned Tuesday. An analysis of more than 2,800 cases of Legionnaires' that occurred in 2015 found that 553 definitely or possibly occurred in a health care facility such as a nursing home or a hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . Sixty-six patients died from the disease. "It's widespread, it's deadly and it's preventable," says Anne Schuchat, the CDC's acting director. Legionnaires' disease is a potentially life-threatening form of pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria, which can grow in water systems such as water storage tanks or pipes. The elderly and people who have weakened immune systems because they are sick are especially at risk. The CDC says hospitals and nursing homes need to work harder to keep the bacteria fromPlumbing In Hospitals And Nursing Homes Can Spread Legionnaires' Diseasehttp://wfae.org/post/plumbing-hospitals-and-nursing-homes-can-spread-legionnaires-disease
117098 as http://wfae.orgTue, 06 Jun 2017 17:36:00 +0000Plumbing In Hospitals And Nursing Homes Can Spread Legionnaires' DiseaseRob SteinThe list of things that can be created with 3-D printers keeps getting longer: jewelry, art, guns, food, medical devices and, now, mouse ovaries. Scientists have used a 3-D printer to create a mouse ovary capable of producing healthy offspring. And researchers hope to create replacement human ovaries the same way someday. "It's really the holy grail of bioengineering for regenerative medicine," says Teresa Woodruff , who led the new research published this week in the journal Nature Communications . The ultimate goal is to create replacement ovaries to restore fertility in women who became sterile after medical treatment, such as cancer chemotherapy, Woodruff says. She hopes to test a human ovary within a few years. For some time now, doctors have been able to restore the fertility of certain cancer patients by removing and freezing some of their ovarian tissue before they undergo chemotherapy and transplanting it back into them later. Some doctors have even tried doing the same thingScientists One Step Closer To 3-D-Printed Ovaries To Treat Infertilityhttp://wfae.org/post/scientists-one-step-closer-3-d-printed-ovaries-treat-infertility
116015 as http://wfae.orgSat, 20 May 2017 10:00:00 +0000Scientists One Step Closer To 3-D-Printed Ovaries To Treat InfertilityRob SteinThere's more grim news about inequality in America. New research documents significant disparities in the life spans of Americans depending on where they live. And those gaps appear to be widening, according to the research. "It's dramatic," says Christopher Murray , who heads the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. He helped conduct the analysis , published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine . Health experts have long known that Americans living in different parts of the country tend to have different life spans. But Murray's team decided to take a closer look, analyzing records from every U.S. county between 1980 and 2014. "What we found is that the gap is enormous," Murray says. In 2014, there was a spread of 20.1 years between the counties with the longest and shortest typical life spans based on life expectancy at birth. In counties with the longest life spans, people tended to live about 87 years, while people in places with the shortestLife Expectancy Can Vary By 20 Years Depending On Where You Livehttp://wfae.org/post/life-expectancy-can-vary-20-years-depending-where-you-live
115221 as http://wfae.orgMon, 08 May 2017 15:30:00 +0000Life Expectancy Can Vary By 20 Years Depending On Where You LiveRob SteinFor decades, black Americans have been dying at a higher rate than white Americans. That's still true overall. But now there's some good news about this long, disturbing trend: The overall death rate for black Americans fell 25 percent between 1999 and 2015, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall death rate dropped for white people as well, but the decrease among black Americans was far greater, narrowing the gap in the death rate between white and black Americans from 33 percent in 1999 to 16 percent in 2015, the report shows. "This report is definitely good news," says Joseph Betancourt , who runs the Disparities Solutions Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Ma. "Efforts over the last 15 to 17 years that have focused on addressing and eliminating disparities have definitely provided some significant results." Between 1999 and 2015, the death rate among black Americans fell from 1,135.7 to 851.9Death Rate Among Black Americans Declines, Especially For Elderly Peoplehttp://wfae.org/post/death-rate-among-black-americans-declines-especially-elderly-people
114877 as http://wfae.orgTue, 02 May 2017 17:05:00 +0000Death Rate Among Black Americans Declines, Especially For Elderly PeopleRob SteinScientists have created an "artificial womb" in the hopes of someday using the device to save babies born extremely prematurely. So far the device has only been tested on fetal lambs. A study published Tuesday involving eight animals found the device appears effective at enabling very premature fetuses to develop normally for about a month. "We've been extremely successful in replacing the conditions in the womb in our lamb model," says Alan Flake , a fetal surgeon at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications . "They've had normal growth. They've had normal lung maturation. They've had normal brain maturation. They've had normal development in every way that we can measure it," Flake says. Flake says the group hopes to test the device on very premature human babies within three to five years. "What we tried to do is develop a system that mimics the environment of the womb as closely as possible," Flake says. "It's basically anScientists Create Artificial Womb That Could Help Prematurely Born Babieshttp://wfae.org/post/scientists-create-artificial-womb-could-help-prematurely-born-babies
114430 as http://wfae.orgTue, 25 Apr 2017 16:25:00 +0000Scientists Create Artificial Womb That Could Help Prematurely Born BabiesRob SteinAn influential federal task force is relaxing its controversial opposition to routine screening for prostate cancer. In the proposed revised guidelines released Tuesday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says men ages 55 to 69 should decide individually with their doctors whether and when to undergo prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing . The task force would continue to recommend against PSA testing for men age 70 and older, saying the potential harms continue to outweigh benefits of routine screening in this age group. The proposal, which isn't yet final, pending input from the public, comes five years after the task force surprised many men and their doctors by recommending against the routine use of the commonly used blood test. That 2012 guidance prompted a significant drop in PSA testing. Almost 180,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and at least 26,000 die from the disease, making it one of the most common and deadly cancers among men. The taskFederal Task Force Softens Opposition To Routine Prostate Cancer Screeninghttp://wfae.org/post/federal-task-force-softens-opposition-routine-prostate-cancer-screening
113558 as http://wfae.orgTue, 11 Apr 2017 10:01:00 +0000Federal Task Force Softens Opposition To Routine Prostate Cancer ScreeningRob SteinScientists say they've made a device in the lab that can mimic the human female reproductive cycle. The researchers hope the device, assembled from living tissue, will lead to new treatments for many medical problems that plague some women, ranging from fibroids and endometriosis to infertility , miscarriages and gynecologic cancers. The researchers described the device Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications and dubbed it the EVATAR. The name, they say, is a play on the word "avatar." "An avatar is kind of a digital representation of an individual in a virtual environment," says Teresa Woodruff , a biomedical engineer in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University who helped create the system. "So when we thought about this synthetic version of the female reproductive tract we thought of the word EVATAR." To create the EVATAR, the researchers used tissues from human fallopian tubes, a uterus and cervix donated by women who had undergone surgery. TheDevice Mimicking Female Reproductive Cycle Could Aid Researchhttp://wfae.org/post/device-mimicking-female-reproductive-cycle-could-aid-research
112736 as http://wfae.orgTue, 28 Mar 2017 18:32:00 +0000Device Mimicking Female Reproductive Cycle Could Aid ResearchRob SteinHow far should scientists be allowed to go in creating things that resemble primitive human brains, hearts, and even human embryos? That's the question being asked by a group of Harvard scientists who are doing exactly that in their labs. They're using stem cells, genetics and other new biological engineering techniques to create tissues, primitive organs and other living structures that mimic parts of the human body. Their concern is that they and others doing this type of "synthetic biology" research might be treading into disturbing territory. "We don't know where this going to go," says John Aach , a lecturer in genetics at Harvard Medical School. "This is just the beginning of this field." Aach helped write a paper in the journal eLife, published Tuesday, calling for an international effort to establish guidelines for this provocative area of research. While all this may sound like something out of Frankenstein , the goal is to find new ways to decipher the mysteries of humanHarvard Scientists Call For Better Rules To Guide Research On 'Embryoids'http://wfae.org/post/harvard-scientists-call-better-rules-guide-research-embryoids
112313 as http://wfae.orgTue, 21 Mar 2017 12:01:00 +0000Harvard Scientists Call For Better Rules To Guide Research On 'Embryoids'Rob SteinScientists have long hoped that stem cells might have the power to treat diseases. But it's always been clear that they could be dangerous too, especially if they're not used carefully. Now a pair of papers published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine is underscoring both the promise and the peril of using stem cells for therapy. In one report , researchers document the cases of three elderly women who were blinded after getting stem cells derived from fat tissue at a for-profit clinic in Florida. The treatment was marketed as a treatment for macular degeneration , the most common cause of blindness among the elderly. Each woman got cells injected into both eyes. In a second report , a patient suffering from the same condition had a halt in the inexorable loss of vision patients usually experience, which may or may not have been related to the treatment. That patient got a different kind of stem cell derived from skin cells as part of a carefully designed Japanese study.3 Women Blinded By Unproven Stem Cell Treatmentshttp://wfae.org/post/3-women-blinded-unproven-stem-cell-treatments
112016 as http://wfae.orgWed, 15 Mar 2017 21:06:00 +00003 Women Blinded By Unproven Stem Cell TreatmentsRob SteinScientists have taken another important step toward creating different types of synthetic life in the laboratory. An international research consortium reports Thursday that it has figured out an efficient method for synthesizing a substantial part of the genetic code of yeast. "We are absolutely thrilled," says Jef Boeke , a geneticist at New York University School of Medicine, who is leading the project. "This is a significant step toward our goal." The milestone is the latest development in the intensifying quest to create living, complex organisms from scratch in the lab. This group previously reported it had completely synthesized one of yeast's 16 chromosomes, which are the molecular structures that carry all of an organism's genes. Now, in a series of seven papers published in the journal Science , the group reports it has completed five more, and is on track to having a fully synthetic yeast genome finished by the end of the year. "We're chugging along toward that goal," BoekeScientists Closer To Creating A Fully Synthetic Yeast Genomehttp://wfae.org/post/scientists-closer-creating-fully-synthetic-yeast-genome
111811 as http://wfae.orgThu, 09 Mar 2017 19:03:00 +0000Scientists Closer To Creating A Fully Synthetic Yeast Genome